Pumper Interview:Kentucky pumper explainswhy he loves his career

Pumper Interview:Kentucky pumper explainswhy he loves his career

A House DividedRural Washington State companydiversifies for a brighter outlook

A House DividedRural Washington State companydiversifies for a brighter outlook

One-

Small is good for thriving Massachusetts companyPAGE 38

Small is good for thriving Massachusetts companyPAGE 38

Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo Pre-Show Issue

®PumperPumperD E D I C A T E D T O T H E L I Q U I D W A S T E I N D U S T R Y

January 2007 www.pumper.com $5.00 U.S.January 2007 www.pumper.com $5.00 U.S.

D E D I C A T E D T O T H E L I Q U I D W A S T E I N D U S T R Y

Feb. 7-10Nashville,Tenn.

Feb. 7-10Nashville,Tenn.

PonyTruck

ew pumpers might imagine that bragging rights come with a single-truck operation, but Wendy and Buddy Juergens of Foxboro, Mass., saythey’re doing just fine, thank you very much. Their two-person familybusiness, The Pump Grump, has parlayed a narrow but deep market

and a fanciful name into a solid, thriving business.While larger concerns jockey for position through multi-service

offerings and impressive fleets of vehicles and equipment, The Pump Grump sat-isfies itself by doing one thing — pumping — really well, with a crew of one —Buddy Juergens. A single administrator/dispatcher — his wife, Wendy — backshim up at the small office in their only location.

How do they stay profitable in a single-service channel? Don’t they havegrowth ambitions? Can such a compact business really have a future? TheJuergenses think so, and their track record supports the straightforward business

model.

STARTING OUT SMALL …Five years ago, Buddy Juergens found himself unhappy at the larger

pumping firm where he was employed. Wendy Juergens suggested theyconsider opening their own pumping business. Not coming from a business

background, her husband wasn’t sure they could make it work.Formerly a corporate executive, Wendy Juergens made a list of all the things

F

Selective marketing and controlled growth prove small can be beautiful — and profitable — for The Pump Grump

By Mary Shafer

The Pump Grump Foxboro, Mass.

Owners: Edward “Buddy’’ and Wendy Juergens

Founded: 2001

Employees: 2

Service Area: Foxboro, Wrentham, Mansfield, Norton, Sharon,Taunton and Walpole in Norfolk and Bristolcounties, Southeast Mass.

Fleet: 2002 Sterling Acterra with a 3,600-gallon HeilTank purchased from Bay State Truck & Trailer

Specialties: Septic tank pumping, cleaning and small repairs

Annual Billing: Less than $300,000

Affiliations: Tri-Town Chamber of Commerce, BusinessNetwork International (BNI)

Web site: www.pumpgrump.com

One-Truck Pony

Profile

Cover Story

Buddy Juergens shows up at a jobsite with his lone truck,a 2002 Sterling Acterra. Many customers call the companyafter seeing the catchy name on the door of the truck.(Photos courtesy of The Pump Grump)

MASSACHUSETTS ★

AS FOR BUDDY JUERGENS, HE TAKES THE WHOLE THING WITH ANEASY SMILE. WHEN HE PULLS UP TO TALK WITH A NEW CUS-

TOMER FOR THE FIRST TIME, THE PERSON WILL OFTEN REMARK,“YOU’RE NOT GRUMPY!” “NO, BUT MY WIFE IS,” HE QUIPS.

they’d need to do to start a new com-pany, and Buddy Juergens mulled itover for a few days. He felt over-whelmed by the business side, butWendy said she’d take care of all thatwhile he performed the actual servic-es. Her background in sales, market-ing and administration, and as an

entrepreneur in her own business, hadprepared her well for the challenge,and soon her husband agreed tobecome her business partner.

They created a business plan, withan eye to the future right from thestart. They had to pick a name for thenew venture. With succession plan-

ning in mind, they didn’t want to usetheir family name, which couldbecome a liability when they wereready to sell the business.

It had to be a marketable name.They threw possibilities back andforth, and the conversation went offon a tangent about a grumpy guy theyboth knew. Buddy became quiet for amoment, then offered, “How about‘Pump Grump?’ ”

Wendy Juergens knew her hus-band was an unflappably happy guy,and considered the irony. “I thought itwould work as a tongue-in-cheek kindof thing,” she says. So they adoptedThe Pump Grump as their monikerand lettered their truck with it. “Now,he’s known laughingly as The Grump,”she says. “It works really well.”

As for Buddy Juergens, he takes thewhole thing with an easy smile. Whenhe pulls up to talk with a new cus-tomer for the first time, the person willoften remark, “You’re not grumpy!”

“No, but my wife is,” he quips.

… AND STAYING THAT WAYWendy Juergens began marketing

efforts by going out and talking withpeople.

“We let everyone know what wewere doing.” The couple spoke to peo-ple through networking events spon-sored by the Tri-Town Chamber ofCommerce “and everything else Icould attend,” she says. She also net-worked through her personal data-base of more than 2,000 local names,which she’d built up through her asso-ciation with Business NetworkingInternational.

Since then, their customer baseseems to have taken on a life of itsown, growing to a current level of1,600. “People hear about people whodo excellent service,” Wendy Juergenssays. “It’s got a lot to do with Buddy’spersonality. Plus, we do a good jobpumping, and go out of our way toteach people what they need to know."I tell them: 'If you have any questionsat all, whether you use us or not, call.'"

Now in their fifth year, The PumpGrump currently averages five newcustomers a week in the busy season(about six months a year). In 2005,Buddy trucked 1.2 million gallons ofwaste to the treatment plant with thecompany's sole truck, a 2002 SterlingActerra with a 3,600-gallon tank fromBay State Truck & Trailer in Rehoboth,Mass.

When new residential customerscall, Wendy Juergens talks with them“to try to understand how they feelabout their septic systems, whetherthey really want to take care of it ornot.

“I put them into categories: oneswho pump every year, every two years,and every 3-5 years. Using that basis,I’m going to do some ‘cleaning out.’We can now start choosing who wewant to work with. If people don’t takecare of their systems, they tend to bethe ones who call you in the middle ofthe night. We don’t want that. We hategoing out in the middle of the nightand having to charge emergency ratesfor things that shouldn’t happen in thefirst place.”

Asked how they’ll manage to staysmall yet remain profitable, WendyJuergens is optimistic. “There should-n’t be an issue, because as time goeson and we get more efficient, webecome more profitable. We need tofocus on scheduling and keeping peo-

“PEOPLE HEAR ABOUT PEOPLE WHO DO EXCELLENTSERVICE. … WE DO A GOOD JOB PUMPING, AND GO OUTOF OUR WAY TO TEACH PEOPLE WHAT THEY NEED TOKNOW. I TELL THEM, IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS AT

ALL, WHETHER YOU USE US OR NOT, CALL.”

Wendy Juergens

Wendy Juergens explains how a septic system works for a home-schooling class. ThePump Grump believes homeowner education is part of its customer service mission.

Above, Buddy Juergens closes the tank valve after pumping a septic tank.Right, Juergens explains septic cleaning charges to a customer. Before heleaves a jobsite, Juergens makes sure customers understand all work per-formed and maintenance recommendations.

ple happy. We still have a lot of roomfor growth, as long as people are flexi-ble.

“November is our busiest month.People are getting ready for holidaytraffic, etc. I’ve been starting to askpeople who have systems that are inreally good shape whether they’d con-sider moving their winter pumpingdates to the spring, so we can even outthe busy/slow cycles.”

Pump Grump is also striving tobuild commercial business for winter.They’re especially going after schools,which they try to schedule for pump-ing over winter recess.

EFFICIENCY EXPERTSWendy Juergens is only booking

out a week and a half right now, sched-uling two to a maximum of four serv-ice calls per day. She leaves time openin Buddy Juergens’ day, which oftenfills up with commercial jobs. PumpGrump has about 30 commercialaccounts now, which they consider agood number.

In another effort to maintain prof-it ratios, they work with a CPA who’s

been very helpful with planning forthe future. “We don’t do any unneces-sary spending,” Wendy Juergens says.“This is also going to be our retire-ment.

“I’m a big planner. We do a yearlybudget, and we establish goals.” Theyanalyze what they spent money on inthe last year. Sometimes they do soquarterly, examining phone bills, ven-dor expenses and insurance.

Smart analysis means also know-ing when they should spend money,and for Wendy Juergens, that’s in theoffice. They use the QuickBooks soft-ware for accounting and pay a book-keeper. “Numbers aren’t my thing,”she admits. “I can analyze, but entryisn’t my thing. My time’s better spentin marketing. I’m a great delegator.”She keeps customer records in ACT!, acustomer relationship managementdatabase. They back up their filesweekly.

Ultimately, they’re aiming for asmuch of the market as they can serv-ice. Their market is large enough thatthey could do business in Foxboroonly, if they so desired. As it is, 53 per-cent of their business is in Foxboro.

VISIBILITY IS KEYPart of their success is built on the

company’s visibility. Wendy Juergenstries to qualify phone leads, askingcallers how they heard of The PumpGrump. They tell her they’ve seen thetruck. “One guy said, ‘I see that truckeverywhere!’ Buddy’s so busy thatpeople think there’s more than onetruck.”

The company doesn’t advertisemuch; some ads and coupons in thelocal newspaper, and a one-line entryin the Yellow Pages. They also have aWeb site, but most of their businesscomes from networking and referrals.They do one-on-one and group pre-

sentations to real estate offices duringsales meetings, which has provenfruitful.

A great deal of publicity comesfrom local newspaper articles. Thepaper calls every so often to see ifPump Grump has anything going on.Over time, Wendy Juergens has lever-aged her marketing experience todevelop a good relationship with edi-tors and reporters, who know they cancount on her for interesting local con-tent. She usually writes the articles,the latest of which covers a lesson onseptic pumping she gave to a home-schooled child under the parents’environmental science curriculum.

One other main effort is personalpublic relations in the form of herjoining her husband in the truck dur-ing his rounds.

“Lately,” she says, “I go along onceevery other week, just so people canmeet me and put a face with a voice. Ialso learn something every time. Myfocus is always teaching people what-ever I can about what’s in the ground.”■

Inspection Regulation is a Mixed Bag for The Pump Grump

In the mid-1990s, Massachusetts enacted Title 5 legislation to address envi-ronmental hazards posed by failing onsite systems. Parts of Title 5 regu-lations require that systems comply with state-mandated design and per-formance standards whenever a property is sold. During the sellingprocess, the septic system must be tested for compliance. If the systemfails inspection, it must be repaired or replaced with one that meets strin-gent standards.

While one might think this would be good for business, WendyJuergens says otherwise.

“The majority of them end up being replaced,” and The PumpGrump doesn’t do system design or installation, so they have to contractthe job out. The company isn’t certified to perform inspections, either.They do perform minor repairs, but what’s usually required to amend asystem failing inspection is far more than is within their scope of services.

The Pump Grump does get pumping business for tanks that mustbe emptied to make way for a new system to be installed. But for this lim-ited-service firm, Title 5 compliance issues are usually unwelcome.

“Buddy hates to tell people theirsystem is in trouble,” Juergenssays, “because he knows it’sgoing to cost them a lot of money.”

“I GO ALONG ONCE EVERY OTHER WEEK, JUST SOPEOPLE CAN MEET ME AND PUT A FACE WITH A

VOICE. I ALSO LEARN SOMETHING EVERY TIME. MYFOCUS IS ALWAYS TEACHING PEOPLE WHATEVER I

CAN ABOUT WHAT’S IN THE GROUND.”

Wendy Juergens

Above, Buddy Juergens performs smallrepairs, such as this outlet T replacement,but stays away from major system repairs.Right, Juergens carefully removes the sodover a septic tank before pumping. He care-fully replaces sod after a job to disturb thesite as little as possible.

MORE INFO:Bay State Truck & Trailer508/336-9600Rehoboth, Mass.www.baystatett.com

© 2007, COLE Publishing Inc. Reprinted with permission from Pumper® / January 2007 / COLE Publishing Inc., P.O. Box 220, Three Lakes, WI 54562 / 800-257-7222 / www.pumper.com